Last night (Monday, February 17) at about 22:00 hours two unidentified men
attempted to kidnap 30 year-old Srdjan Vesic of Klokot near Vitina, the
father of three small children. The attempted abduction took place near
the Klokot-Vitina main road as Vesic was returning from the store to his
house. Vesic personally confirmed to correspondents of Radio KIM in
Kosovsko Pomoravlje that two kidnappers stopped a car and attempted to
pull him into the vehicle. He managed to resist them but sustained light
injuries in the process. The kidnapping was prevented by Vesic's neighbor
who, hearing some commotion and cries for help, ran to his assistance. The
abductors then fled in the direction of Vitina. The incident was reported
to KFOR and UNMIK police.

(photo: Serbia's vice premier Covic
against transormation of TMK into a National Guard)

International
community has a plan to transform TMK (Kosovo Protection Corps) into a
National Guard that will have 3,000 armed persons and another two thousand
into reserve component, sources in Prishtina reported to Beta agency.

The same sources claim that this is the first TMK transformation phase,
which was created after disbanding KLA, while the other phase could be, as
it is suggested, transformation into the army of independent Kosova.

The President of the Coordinating Center for Kosova and Metohija, Nebojsa
Covic in regard to the TMK transformation plan accused individuals of the
international mission in Kosova and added that this is a flagrant
violation of international documents for Kosova.

“Almost two months ago we presented to the public what the individuals in
UNMIK are trying to make out of the TMK,” said Covic. He stressed, “It is
obvious that this whole activity is continuing and the matter is about the
most drastically breach of the UNSC resolution 1244.”

Covic also stated that TMK should decrease and that it could no be
transformed into any kind of military formation, because it is established
for natural disasters. Transformation into a national guard or anything
similar to that is an awful attempt to destroy UNSC resolution 1244,”
Covic said. “If anyone is afraid that it will transform into the army of
independent Kosova, as is the plan of individuals within the Albanian
national community, then it should be said in public, because brings up
the question how could it work and what result would have the mission that
is afraid,” said Covic. He added that in Kosova, “that fear exists and its
results could be seen every day, which is driving out and ethnic cleansing
of the Serbs and non-Albanians.

“According to this, shovels, hoes, construction machineries could be the
only weapons of the TMK,” Covic stated categorically.

(photo: Fatmir Limaj, vice-president of
Thaci's PDK indicted for war crimes in Kosovo)

BELGRADE
(Reuters) - A prominent Kosovo Albanian war crimes suspect was detained
Tuesday and is expected to be transferred to the United Nations tribunal
in The Hague, the prosecutor's office said.

Fatmir Limaj is the highest-ranking of four Kosovo Albanian former
guerrillas named in the U.N. war crimes tribunal's first indictment
against ex-members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that battled
Slobodan Milosevic's Serb forces.

The four indictees are accused of atrocities against Serb and Albanian
civilians held in a KLA prison camp in central Kosovo in mid-1998,
including torture and murder.

The office of the U.N. war crimes prosecutor denied reports in Kosovo that
Limaj, an ally of ex-Kosovo Albanian rebel chief Hashim Thaci and a senior
commander during the 1998-9 conflict, had handed himself over to Austrian
police.

"He was arrested in a state of the former Yugoslavia," spokeswoman
Florence Hartmann told Reuters.

A United Nations source in Kosovo said there seemed to be confusion as to
whether Limaj had been in Austria or Slovenia. "As far as we are
concerned, he handed himself in," he said.

A source close to the Kosovo government told Reuters earlier that Limaj,
32, had surrendered to police in Austria and was on his way to The Hague.

Limaj is a member of Kosovo's parliament and a senior official of the
Democratic Party of Kosovo, headed by Thaci.

The NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo said on Monday it had
detained the three others: Haradin Bala, Isak Musliu and Agim Murtezi.

DEL PONTE SLAMS NATO

But U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte voiced anger earlier
Tuesday over KFOR's failure to detain Limaj, saying he had been able to
leave Kosovo on a regular flight last Friday even though KFOR had a
warrant for his arrest.

She said he had traveled with Thaci but did not say where to. "It escapes
all understanding that Fatmir Limaj, a member of parliament, a public
figure, could be allowed to leave Kosovo with that ease two and a half
weeks after KFOR had been in possession of the indictment and arrest
warrant."

A spokesman for the NATO-led KFOR force declined comment.

Limaj told Reuters by phone that he had not known he was indicted. "I'm
not worried about any indictment and I don't feel guilty," he said,
without revealing his whereabouts. "If I'm one of the suspects ... I'll
turn myself in voluntarily."

Del Ponte, visiting the Balkan region, said the three suspects detained by
KFOR were being transferred to the Hague tribunal, whose mandate is to
prosecute those suspected of war crimes during the Balkan wars of the
1990s.

The indictment made public Tuesday said KLA forces under Limaj's command
held at least 35 Serb and Albanian civilians in the Lapusnik prison camp,
"under conditions that were brutal and inhumane, and routinely subjected
them to physical and psychological assault, including torture and
beatings."

The forces beat, tortured and murdered a number of Serb, non-Albanian and
Albanian detainees at the camp, it added.

Many Kosovo Albanians regard the former guerrillas as heroes in a war of
liberation against harsh Serb rule when Milosevic was in power in
Belgrade. Kosovo came under U.N.-led rule in mid-1999 after 11 weeks of
NATO bombing drove out his forces.

ERP KIM Info-Service is the official
Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren
and works with the blessing of His Grace Bishop Artemije.
Our Information Service is distributing news on Kosovo related issues. The
main focus of the Info-Service is the life of the Serbian Orthodox Church
and the Serbian community in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija. ERP KIM
Info Service works in cooperation with
www.serbian-translation.com as well as the
Kosovo
Daily News (KDN) News List

Disclaimer:
The views expressed by the authors of newspaper articles or other texts
which are not official communiqués or news reports by the Diocese are
their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Serbian
Orthodox Church

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